Angels couldn't capitalize on ridiculous ump show that got Yankees manager ejected

2024 has not been a banner year for umpires, other that the news of Angel Hernandez's retirement. However, amid all the widespread chaos, the Los Angeles Angels still get to stake claim to a front row seat to one of the worst performances from an umpiring crew this year on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, it wasn't to their advantage enough, as LA still lost by the score of 2-1.

We'll start with the biggest umpiring adventure of the evening, which came in the top of the first. Tyler Anderson was in big trouble, as the Yankees had loaded the bases with no outs and had Giancarlo Stanton at the plate.

On the first pitch immediately following a pair of walks, Stanton popped up a thigh-high slow breaker, and the infield fly rule was immediately called. That is when things went sideways.

Not unlike the play during the Orioles-White Sox game a week or so ago that the league intimated was handled incorrectly, Juan Soto was called out for interference after he made contact with Zach Neto. Because the infield fly rule was called, that meant it resulted in a double play that burned the Yankees. New York manager Aaron Boone disagreed vehemently and got ejected, although he later agreed that it was probably technically the right call while acknowledging it was a weird situation.

Umpire weirdness in Angels-Yankees game didn't stop with controversial infield fly play

The play in question proved to be a pretty big deal. Instead of having the bases loaded with one out after the pop up, the Yankees only had runners on first and third with two outs and the Angels were able to get out of the inning. Unfortunately, the Angels' offense didn't show up on Wednesday and LA still lostm despite getting such a gift.

One reason for the depressed scoring in the game overall was that one of league's worst umpires was behind home plate in the game and, according to Umpire Auditor, umpire Brian Walsh called the worst game of any umpire this season.

At some point, something is going to have to give when it comes to MLB's umpires. A lot of them are very good at their jobs, but between inconsistent rules enforcement and replay reviews, along with the bottom 10% or so of umpires being REALLY bad at their jobs to the point where entire game outcomes get changed due to incompetence, this just can't continue. It is undermining the very legitimacy of the competition that is taking place, which turns fans off and makes the games about something other than the two teams on the field.

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